Summer Game Fest makes a surprisingly light splash (again)

gamedeveloper.com:

With E3 lying in ruins, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest now stands tall as the event that kicks off a major summer of video game marketing. And yet for the second year in a row, the show that introduced itself with the announcement of Elden Ring once again put show-stopping game reveals in the back seat.

Just as in 2022, the event organizers took a more gameplay-focused approach to the event. The show revealed some eye-catching mid-budget games like Saber Interactive's John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Sega's Sonic Superstars, and Ubisoft's Prince of Persia The Last Crown.

Ubisoft's choice to unveil a new game in the Prince of Persia series at Summer Game Fest is notable since Ubisoft has its own showcase coming up in a couple of weeks, and it seems the publisher wants to keep the long-running series in the public eye.

But studios like NetherRealm Games and Remedy took time to show off more in-depth looks at their previously announced games than unveil any new major titles. NetherRealm had previously teased Mortal Kombat 1 before the showcase, and Remedy is sticking to promoting Alan Wake 2 for the moment, with no word of any of its other games in development.

The biggest unveiling at the event was Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, a sequel to 2020's Final Fantasy VII: Remake, a remake of Final Fantasy VII that doubles as a pseudo-sequel to the original game. (It's complicated. Even calling Rebirth a sequel to Remake is complicated.)

For a moment it almost seemed like Sony was going to throw its weight around with more footage of Marvel's Spider-Man 2—but that didn't happen. Creative director Bryan Intihar showed up with some new art and a release date a release date for Sony's blockbuster game, but was tight-lipped